Quick Look: Browser X moves the Roku a tiny step closer to providing users with the ability to surf the web using their Roku device. But only a tiny step. In most cases, Browser X delivers fully rendered pages with clickable links - unlike earlier attempts to put a browser on Roku that delivered only text or static-image screenshots of web pages.
When you launch Browser X, you can select from a handful of links that include Google News, CNN, ABC News, and Fox News. Click the * button on your remote, though, and you'll have the option to enter a URL or do a Google search. (Other options include going to "favorites" and making the current page your start page.) After a page loads, use the left and right directional buttons to move from link to link, and press "OK" to load that link. The up and down directional arrows will let you scroll through a page.
I tested Browser X on a couple of sites, including our own RokuGuide.com website. You can see some screenshots from these sites below. Pages rendered fairly well, although formatting was off in some cases.
Moving from link to link worked fine on our website, and the "add channel" button for Twitter for Roku took us to a nicely-rendered page in the Roku Channel Store, but that's where things fell apart. Moving from link to link on the Roku website took me to phantom links - links with no text that went to unknown pages. There are other limitations, like not being able to fill in website forms, and videos won't play so stay away from YouTube.
-- Information is current as of May 4, 2017
Developer's Channel Description: Browser X is the best way to surf the web on Roku. Relax and enjoy your favorite sites from news, sports, finance, and much more. Using Google, you can search your favorite sites and images. Browser X let's you save your homepage and makes surfing the web easy!
CHANNEL STORE CATEGORY: Apps
DEVELOPER: EndangeredScreens.com
FEES: $4.99/month subscription
RELATED LINKS: None
